NZ202641A - Wire clothes pegs and forming apparatus - Google Patents

Description

^ QX (ol±l i NEW ZEALAND .J rnomy Uate(s): -3. 7.1 £6 -^ 2- Complete Specification Fifed: ?$7}}7^^ Class: / PATENTS ACT 1953 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION Publication Date: P.O. Journal, No: INFORMING WIRE PEGS.

WE, DONALD JAMES PRINGLE and HELEN PHILIPPA PRINGLE, both Australian citizens of 61 Stevenson Street, Bundaberg, in the State of Queensland, 4670, Commonwealth of Australia, do hereby declare the invention for which we pray that a patent may be granted to us and the method by which it is to be performed, to be particularly described in and by the following statement: 20264-1 THIS INVENTION relates to clothes pegs, their construction, and apparatus for winding wire pegs.

Many different types of clothes pegs are known, the most popular being the type provided with lever opened, sprung jaws. This type of clothes peg must be constructed from a number of different initial pieces in order to achieve the sprung hinge about which the jaws are made to pivot under pressure upon lever end pieces. Consequently, these types of clothes peg require a number of preliminary fabrication process steps to be performed to produce the initial peg pieces before a final assembly process can be performed.

An object of the invention is a simple to fabricate clothes peg, which achieves a sprung jaw construction without the need for provision of a number of complex different initial peg pieces. The present invention aims to provide a peg from standard "off the shelf" materials, that is both pleasing in appearance and capable of a long service life. Additionally, the invention aims to fabricate a clothes peg utilizing simple fabrication techniques permitting of automatic processing.

Further the present invention aims to provide wire forming apparatus suited to the production of wire pegs. The apparatus aims at performing a number of separate bending and twisting operations in an automatic or semi-automatic fashion. Additionally the apparatus ZQ2&m aims at producing pegs of a particular configuration, in an accurately reproducible manner. Further, the apparatus of the invention aims to achieve a degree control of various process steps in excess of what can 5 be hoped for by hand to produce a superior product with a more neat appearance. Other objects and advantages of the invention will hereinafter become apparent.

The invention aims to overcome the above disadvantages in prior peg configurations and achieve 10 its objects by provision of a wire peg wherein jaws are provided for receipt of items to be held by the peg, which jaws are provided with outwardly opening lips to define an entry to a locating region formed between the jaws, which locating region comprises a hollow formed 15 between adjacent outwardly curved sections of the opposed jaws, characterised in that the peg is constructed from a single wire length, formed in stages, with two overlapped loops to provide said two jaws, and a twisted neck portion provided with a gripping means whereby the peg may be 20 handled in use and pushed over the items to be held by it.

Further this invention resides broadly in an apparatus for forming wire pegs comprising first and second wire forming stations at which wire forming processes are serially performed upon a piece of wire 25 to be formed in stages to build from said wire by bending and twisting a wire peg as set out above, said apparatus performing its function upon a predetermined 202641 length of straight wire, said predetermined length of wire being transported from a supply thereof to each successive one of said wire forming stations in turn, said first forming station comprising a mandrel about 5 which said wire is twice looped to form a pair of overlapped loops and a winding head for receipt of said wire ends, said winding head applying a twist to the wire ends from the top of the overlapped loops to provide a twisted neck portion off said overlapped 10 loops and said second station comprising a jig for holding said overlapped loops and forming means whereby the wire ends above said neck are bent around a former to provide overlapped bends in said ends that turn said wire ends downwardly in the direction of said neck. 15 In order that the invention may be more readily understood and put into practical effect, reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings which illustrate a preferred embodiment thereof and wherein:-Fig. 1 shows the starting material from 20 which a peg according to the invention may be constructed; Figs. 2 to 4 show a peg according to the invention during various stages of its construction; Fig. 5 shows a side view of a peg according 25 to the present invention; Fig. 6 shows schematically the layout of a wire former and winding head according to the 202641 present invention; Fig. 7 shows further details of the winding head of Fig. 1; Fig. 8 shows schematically the layout of a 5 wire former and bending tool; and Fig. 9 shows further details of the bending tool of Fig. 3.

Fig. 1 shows the starting materials from which a peg according to the present invention might be 10 constructed and 10 is a wire-like means which is ductile and bendable. Wire-like means 10 may be fitted with a sleeve of material such as plastic in order that the finally formed peg has a pleasing appearance and so that items held within the peg's jaws are insulated 15 from corrosion products, such as rust in the case of mild steel wire being used to form the peg. Preferably, such plastic sleeving should be resistant to degradation by solar rays in order that the peg may have a useful life outdoors as a clothes peg.

The two ends 12 and 13 of the wire-like means may be looped right over left to form two downwardly projected loops 15 and 14 shown in Fig. 2 with the centre point of the wire-like means 10 becoming the cross over point between the two loops itemised as 16 25 in Fig. 2. From the structure of Fig. 2, the two ends 12 and 13 may be twisted to provide the neck portion 17 shown in Fig. 3. Four or five twists will provide an 202641 adequate length of neck and the twist closes down the ends of loops 14 and 15 tightly over their connecting piece 16. The progression from Fig. 1 to the stage illustrated in Fig. 3 can be achieved in a single bending, 5 twisting operation.

In Fig. 4 the two ends 12 and 13 are looped around to provide gripping means 18 with the ends of 12 and 13 snipped off to neatly butt against the start of the loop 18 at the head of neck 17. This completes stage 10 2 of the peg's construction.

To complete the peg, the jaws 14 and 15 are bent outwardly at their lower end to provide two lips opening outwardly to define an opening 20 to the jaws 14 and 15, as shown in Fig. 5. Further, a rod is pushed 15 up between the jaws and the jaws are pressed down over the rod to curve them outwardly and produce a locating region 19 between the outwardly curved jaws.

Thus, a three stage, wire bending process is sufficient to produce a peg having sprung jaws using a 20 simple wire-like piece as a starting off point.

Fig. 6 shows schematically the layout of a winding head 113 and a wire forming mandrel 111 which form the wire working portions of the first station in a series of wire forming stations operating in sequence to 25 progressively form a peg from a straight length of wire.

The mandrel 111 is mounted upon a suitable support 112 and has a shape equivalent to that required for the two 202641 pincer arms of a wire peg. In practice, a predetermined length of straight wire may be looped twice about the mandrel 111 with the two loops formed thereon laying one atop the other to bring the wire ends to the mandrel end opposite the winding head 113. The wires are crossed over and their length is inserted through openings in the head 117 (shown in greater detail in Fig. 7) to be held" therein against any tendency, either in the wire bending tension on insertion or during the following twisting operation to slip from within the head. The winding head grips the wire lengths close up to the cross over point at the head of the loops formed on the mandrel 111. The winding head 113 is mounted on a suitable rotatable shaft 114 supported through a support means 115 for rotation therein and the head is biassed towards the mandrel by a spring 116. The tension in the spring controls the twist which follows. The rotatable shaft is caused to rotate and thereby turn the wire ends on each other, each to twist about the other. Spring tension is chosen to ensure a tight even twist. Too much tension and the wires twist in spiral coils rather than a coiled neck portion. Too little and the twist is uneven and one wire may fail to twist, remaining straight with the other wound around it. The end result of the operation of this wire forming station is two looped pincer arms depending from a twisted neck portion.

Fig. 7 shows the winding head 113 of Fig. 6 in 2.02641 greater detail. The head 113 has a central bore in which an outwardly oriented cone shaped former 120 is disposed. The front face of the head 113 may be grooved at 118 with an offset slot 119 to produce a bayonet socket 5 connector type. The wire ends above the loops on mandrel 111 are crossed over atop the loops and the diverging ends fitted into slots 118 to be caught in grooves 119 as the head turns so as to be held therein with their cross over point atop the winding cone. The cone acts in 10 conjunction with spring 116 to produce a tightly twisted neck portion above the loops. Winding twists the coils onto the cone apex and twisting pressure thereat pushes the head back as the winding proceeds and the twist builds up. It is this pressure which is counterbalanced 15 by the spring 116 to maintain pressure on the developing coils of the twisted neck to produce a uniform twist.

Fig. 8 shows the layout of a wire former and bending tool. A locating projection 121 supported on a suitable flat surface 122 is shaped to receive there-20 over the looped arms of the partly shaped peg produced at the first wire forming station with the two free wire ends at the top of the twisted neck being disposed on opposite sides of an upstanding circular bending head 125 around which the free wire ends are curved to form 2 5 the head of the peg to be gripped by the fingers in use. The locating projection may be movably mounted relative to the bending head 125 to enable removal of the developing 2.02641 peg after the bending operation is completed at this second station. The flat surface 122 is provided with a raised mound 123 at a position relative to bending head 125 opposite the locating projection 121. The orientation of mound 123 matches that of the free end of wire pegs which produced at the first station such that a peg on projection 121 has one free end extending across surface 122 alongside mound 123.

The bending head 125 in Fig. 8 may be hollow to receive a bending tool 124 shown in greater detail in Fig. 9. Tool 124 is prarided with a handle 130 off downwardly directed shaft 131 with a circular end rod 132 to be received within the hollow of bending head 125.

Shaft 131 carries a stepped downward projection 133 with stepped portion 134. The two downward projections are of a length which enables downward projection 133 to rest on flat surface 122 in use. The tool is placed into the winding head to pick up a free wire end and turned around to bend that end around the winding head. The projection 133 rides up mound 123 and over the other free end behind the mound and on the return stroke picks up the other free end pushing it up over the mound to bind up against the upper loop around the winding head as the lower loop is formed. The peg formed in this way comprises two loop arms, a twisted neck portion and a partially formed head portion comprising two shaped loops with downwardly directed wire ends.

Z0264-] Processing of the peg proceeds at subsequent stations and may proceed with bending of the peg arms to form an outwardly diverging opening, an inner bulge between the arms to receive clothes and clothes wire 5 therebetween in a non-releasable fashion, and a head portion with no free wire ends to snag on clothing held by the peg.

Transport of the pegs between processing stations may be achieved by manual and/or automatic means. Similarly 10 at the various processing stations, wire forming may be either automated or achieved by manual operation of the wire forming tooling operating at each particular station. For greatest output a fully automatic operation will produce more pegs from the above described equipment than 15 would be the case with an apparatus requiring manual intervention.

While the above has been given by way of illustrative example, many modifications and variations as would be apparent to persons skilled in the art may be 20 made thereto without departing from the broad scope and ambit of the invention as herein set forth and claimed in the following claims.

Claims (11)

WHAT WE CLAIM IS: 202^4?

1. A wire peg wherein jaws are provided for receipt of items to be held by the peg, which jaws are provided with outwardly opening lips to define an entry to a locating region formed between the jaws, which locating region comprises a hollow formed between adjacent outwardly curved sections of the opposed jaws, characterised in that the peg is constructed from a single wire length, formed in stages, with two overlapped loops to provide said two jaws, and a twisted neck portion provided with a gripping means whereby the peg may be handled in use and pushed over the items to be held by it.

2. A wire peg as claimed in Claim 1 wherein said single length of wire comprises a wire length within a plastic sleeve producing a peg wherein said two jaws are encased within said sleeve.

3. A wire peg as claimed in either of Claim 1 or Claim 2 wherein said two jaws comprise two overlaid loops the free ends of which meet in said twisted neck portion and curve circularly off the end thereof to provide said gripping means.

4. A wire peg forming apparatus comprising first and second wire forming stations at which wire forming processes are serially performed upon a piece of wire to be formed in stages to build from said wire by bending and twisting a wire peg as claimed in Claim 1, said apparatus performing its function upon a predetermined length of straight wire, said predetermined length of wire - 11 - 202641 being transported from a supply thereof to each successive one of said wire forming stations in turn, said first forming station comprising a mandrel about which said wire is twice looped to form a pair of overlapped loops and a winding head for receipt of said wire ends, said winding head applying a twist to the wire ends from the top of the overlapped loops to provide a twisted neck portion off said overlapped loops and said,second station comprising a jig for holding said overlapped loops and forming means whereby the wire ends above said neck are bent around a former to provide overlapped bends in said ends that turn said wire ends downwardly in the direction of said neck.

5. A wire peg forming apparatus as claimed in Claim 4 wherein said supply of predetermined lengths of wire supplies wire lengths encased in a plastic sheathing.

6. A wire peg forming apparatus as claimed in either of Claims 4 or 5 wherein said winding head comprises wire holding means bearing upon said wire ends to twist said ends around each other, cone means centrally of said head and said wire holding means about which said wire ends are wound to twist them about each other, said cone means being resiliently biassed towards said mandrel against the formation of the twisted neck portion to cause the twist to be formed evenly and allow the cone means and winding head to be forced back therefrom as the twisted neck is formed, and winding means by which said - 12 - 202641 winding head is caused to rotate. /•

7. A wire peg forming apparatus as claimed in Claim 6 wherein said winding head comprises a cylindrical body portion having an open end, said cone means being centrally located within said open end and said wire holding means comprises diametrically opposed slots formed in the walls of the cylinder opening outwardly at the open end thereof for the receipt of the wire ends therein.

8. A wire peg forming apparatus as claimed in any one of Claims 4 to 7 wherein said second station comprises a wire engaging tool located within said round former and depending over the sides thereof to engage said wire ends and draw said ends one at a time, in opposite directions about said former, said wire engaging tool comprising means for its rotation about said former.

9. A wire peg forming apparatus as claimed in Claim 8 wherein said second station comprises a flat surface upon which the part formed peg from said first station is supported with diverging wire ends extending to each side of said former, and a mound means formed in said flat surface alongside one wire end and disposed between said ends such that said tool may carry one wire end up over the other end behind said mound around said former and pick up said other wire end on the return movement of said tool to bend it round said former in the opposite direction. - 13 - Z0264-1

10. A wire peg substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

11. A wire peg forming apparatus substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings. DONALD JAMES PRINGLE and HELEN PHILIPPA PRINGLE By their Attorney JAMES W PIPER N.Z. *AYENTOrrr:i BcCHlVcC - 14 -